Civilization Is Not the Default. Violence Is

The argument

A new essay on Apropos argues that peace and the institutions that sustain it are not inevitable — they are fragile public goods that must be actively maintained. Drawing on Marc Bloch’s Feudal Society, the piece traces how the collapse of Rome ushered in a “first feudal age” of fragmentation, where roads and coinage fell into disuse, law became local custom, and subsistence living made entire communities perilously vulnerable ("one frost and many would starve"). It has been reported that the essay was discussed on Hacker News, prompting readers to compare medieval decline with modern geopolitical stress.

From breakdown to rebuilding

The author walks readers through the medieval recovery: how the Church’s Peace and Truce of God eased violence, how increasing trade and revived study of Roman law helped rebuild trust, and how salaried officials and bourgeois towns chipped away at localized predation to create centralized states. The emotional core is plain: when coercive order collapses, everyday life becomes a scramble. Short-term violence begets long-term stagnation — then, slowly, institutions and commerce can stitch things back together. Sound familiar? The sequence — collapse, localism, gradual institutional recovery — feels eerily relevant in an age worried about great-power competition, supply-chain shocks, and eroding norms.

A caution for today

The essay frames Pax Americana and the modern liberal order as fragile arrangements, not permanent fixtures. It has been reported that the author urges policymakers and citizens alike to treat trust, law, and enforcement as public goods that require investment and maintenance — not something to be taken for granted. Allegedly, that warning is what has stuck with many readers: civilization is a construction, not a default setting.

Do we care enough to keep those institutions healthy? The medieval lesson is blunt and a bit uncomfortable: civilization can unravel faster than we like to think.

Sources: apropos.substack.com, Hacker News